We may find that although we finally WANT to be reconciled to God and brought back fully into a relationship with Him, that it’s very difficult to do. It’s hard to do the right thing when you’ve practiced doing the wrong thing over and over again. How are we able to finally break this cycle? It may sound a little odd, but the truth is we can’t do anything in our own strength. To be restored, it takes God’s grace to accomplish it for us. This is what Jeremiah is stating when he says, “Restore us to You, O Lord“. It’s requesting God to accomplish what we cannot on our own, that the work be completed by Him so “that we may be restored”.
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(Note: Here’s a thought appropriate to the discussion of how to go about making a list of biblically pertinent New Year’s resolutions.)

There’s a scene in the movie “Titanic” where a rich man, realizing there are not enough boats for everyone, offers all his money to a sailor if he will give the rich man a spot so he can escape the disaster. The sailor rightly points out how worthless the offer is. We all seem to understand that situation very well, and yet so many are not applying it to this life. Often what is pursued has no value when our final remittance comes due.
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The evidence of the depth of penetration of a consumer-driven society into the church today is revealed in the ongoing discussion within churches, “What do we need to do?” On the surface this seems like the right question, but the direction taken by the subsequent conversation reveals that their compass is leading elsewhere. It turns into a discussion on how to make church relevant, how to get more people to come to church, how to make church “more effective”. It’s a discussion that far too often misses the opportunity to re-word the issue so as to ask, “What do we need to do to become more Christ-like?”
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At my very core, I’m an action-verb kind of a guy. The question I always seem to be asking is “What now?” or “What shall I do to make it happen?” Somehow I was born with the notion that “waiting” is a sign of weakness, of indecision, of procrastinating to put off whatever needs to be done to accomplish the job. My brain has a hard time grasping the fact that waiting may be as viable an option, even more so in certain circumstances, than doing.
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The first time I truly took the time to really read and study Lamentations I was startled to find that THIS is the source of this verse. For nearly as long as I can remember I’ve sung the hymn based on this verse, and I guess I must have thought it was from the Psalms. I had no idea that the context in which one of the greatest of all Bible verses is placed is within the very depths of experiencing God’s judgment! Knowing it’s proper context has actually made it even more powerful for me than ever.
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As noted in Hebrews 4:12, God’s Word is a two-edged sword. It can simultaneously cut two ways: for those who embrace and adhere to His Word, it cuts to produce blessings; for those rejecting His Word, it cuts to produce judgment and condemnation. The very same Word works to opposite extremes for both parties. But the ironic thing is that this it is doing so exactly as He has purposed, accomplishing His original intent. The work of the Word of a holy and righteous God is to prepare everything for His presence, some to be purified and made holy for His presence, others to be permanently removed because of their sinful impurities.
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Hopefully you’ve been following the reading schedule and are reading Lamentations immediately following Jeremiah. One of the repeated points of contention between Jeremiah and the numerous false prophets was whether Babylon would, indeed, not just conquer Jerusalem, but enter and then destroy God’s temple. The false prophets, right up to the very end, prophesied it would never happen, contrary to Jeremiah’s warning that God, in His anger, would use Babylon to accomplish these very things. Now that it has happened, it is very interesting that in Lamentations, the record of how they are dealing with His judgment, that they never mention Babylon again. They finally understand that it all came about by God’s hand.
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